Posts tagged: Atenco

Evoking the title of a slapstick Mexican film, Las Traigo Muertas [I Bring the Dead, 1987], in which the central figure conspires to murder women, the student art collective Promoteo México has provided a chilling portrait of (possible) President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. After all, it should be recalled that as governor of the State of Mexico, the most populous state in Mexico, it was he who presided over the brutal suppression of the San Salvador Atenco mobilisation, also known as the ‘Popular Front in Defence of the Land’, in 2006, which led to the detention of 350 people and the rape of 26 women. Is that time a harbinger of Peña Nieto as the (possible) incoming President of Mexico along with the return of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) following the outcome of the election on July 1?

With reference to the uprisings known as the ‘Arab Spring’, students in Mexico have gathered apace in recent weeks to protest against Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and wider issues of media-manipulation surrounding the presidential election on July 1.

The spark was lit on May 11 during a meeting between Peña Nieto and students at the prestigious Iberoamericana University (Ibero) in which he was heckled with shouts of “Coward!”, “Ibero doesn’t want you!”, and “Assassin!”. It is worth pointing out that Peña Nieto was the governor of Estado de México during the repression of the San Salvador Atenco mobilisation, also known as the ‘Popular Front in Defence of the Land’, in 2006, that led to the detention of 350 people and the rape of 26 women.